The afternoon session papers focused our discussions on some of the spiritual aspects of Christmas expressed through non-religious texts and practices, particularly as they open out to become everyday phenomena.

Niamh Doheny's presentation began by looking at three key Christmas films (It's a Wonderful Life, The Bishop's Wife and The Santa Clause). Whilst these 'classics' are often seen as rooted in the particular message of Christmas which leaves the theological far behind (notwithstanding supernatural elements), they present problems which are only resolved by acts that might otherwise occur in the everyday.

Mary's saving the day at the end of It's a Wonderful Life is through her suggestion of the powerful act of potlatch (also picked up by Linda Ruth Williams here) during a run on the banks, demonstrating for Doheny the everyday dichotomy that "while ethics and community-spirited acts are valuable, and even essential, without the means to consume, people are powerless and at the mercy of the immoral."

This relation of the spiritual to acts of consumption (related also to small-gift giving) was taken up by Deirdre Shaw (right) as she reported on her research into small gift consumption as an example of the conversion of the religious to the spiritual in everyday consumption. Discussion particularly focused on the spiritual investment in small, mass produced gifts intended as feel-good charms with very little value, but which can gather considerable importance despite their lowly status. Deirdre introduced a project with new and ambitious aims - particular in looking at how new consumers use ideas of the spiritual to narrate their self-identity and question their own consumption practices.